Space station may win a new lease of life

THE International Space Station is poised to receive a new lease of life, after international partners agreed in principle to keep the $100 billion outpost going until at least 2020.

The ISS was originally set for decommissioning in 2015, but industry officials have assured policy-makers that it is structurally fit to last the additional years.

The extension would be good news for researchers hoping to take advantage of the space station's microgravity environment. Possible future research includes an experiment due to begin in a few months into gravity's effect on biofuels, and a device yet-to-be-launched called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer designed to search cosmic rays for evidence of dark matter and antimatter.

The extra five years will also allow further research on the psychological performance of teams during long-term space missions, and on how organisms withstand the harsh conditions of space, says Jeremy Curtis of the ...

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